The Other Side Paperback – 27 July 2007

i have a collection of well over 200 graphic novels, most of those are in series but i have quite a few individual graphic novels too. This is one of my favourites. a very powerful story that gives insight into the vietnam war, chronicling the 2 stories of an american GI and a vietnamese farmer who volunteers to join the army. an insightful story, gives the reader a real sense of what the war was like from both sides and takes the reader on a journey through the vietnamese culture and history which, i was largely unaware of. very well researched and some good bonus material at the end. highly recommended

This is a haunting tale of the Vietnam War told as a Graphic Novel and graphic accurately describes this “wonderful” book. Not cheap not not that expensive and worth every penny.

The story for this is brilliant. At times the artwork doesn't match the quality of the writing and the power of the story.

An amazing story, a good look at 2 human aspects of a harsh war.The Graphic novel was in very good condition and arrived when expacted.

Everything is ok, book has no damage

Great art, decent enough dialogue but the overall story is a bit flat. Still a good enough read to pass the time.

Great.

'The Other Side' is one of the few war series which takes a sympathetic view of both sides of the Vietnam Conflict, following two young men - an American soldier, PFC Bill Everette, and a North Vietnamese soldier, Vo Binh Dai, as they join their respective armies for the first time, and depicting the effect of the war on them as the horror they witness takes its toll on their souls and sanity.A five-issue Vietnam War-themed comic book mini-series published by DC Comics in 2006 as a part of its Vertigo imprint. It was written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by Cameron Stewart. Artist Stewart travelled to Vietnam to do extensive visual research, which is evident in his work, where as it was one of the earliest comics scripted by writer Jason Aaron, and received a 2007 Eisner Award nomination for Best Limited Series.

Its gonna fall apart its not even glued good

It is not an easy story, but worth of knowing.

Jason Aaron has to be one of my favorite comic book writers of all time. Between his amazing work on Wolverine, Punisher MAX, and the gritty modern Western that is "Scalped", his stories have a unique blend of humor, violence, and flawed yet enjoyable characters doing their best to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. When I heard that one of his first works as a writer was a Vertigo title about the Vietnam War, I was giddy with excitement; I've always been fascinated by the Vietnam War in reality and in fiction, so if there was a comic book about the war written by one of the finest writers on the scene, I had to get it. What I found in The Other Side is a tragic, dark story that borders on horror, but nonetheless sucks you in with great writing and characterization.There are two protagonists in this story, one being Private First Class Bill Everette, a young U.S. Marine hailing from Alabama who wants nothing more than to survive the war and go home. The other is Vo Binh Dai, a young North Vietnamese Army soldier who is passionate about driving the Americans out of his beloved homeland. Let me just say that this is one of the main reasons I love this book; not too many war stories explore the lives and struggles of the enemy. In this way, you see the humanity of both sides, and you begin to understand that war is wrong because it involves real people, not brainwashed drones, going into harm's way either because of what believe in (as with Vo Dai) or because they were forced to (as with Everette).What's really striking is how similar the protagonists are. Everette is a country boy from Alabama who was raised on Jesus and the promise of the American Dream. Vo Dai is also a country boy, the son of farmers and a devout follower of the Eightfold Path (Buddhism). Both men have loving families they long to return to despite having different motivations for fighting this war. While Everette is much more on edge and scared, Vo Dai too comes to doubt his struggle. I believe that these two men could have been friends had their countries not been at war with one another.PFC Everette is clearly losing his mind as the story unfolds. He sees grotesquely deformed "ghosts" around him, and has recurring nightmares of death and dismemberment. Vo Dai does not fare much better, as he too is haunted by the death surrounding him. You actually see parallels between their stories, as while they may be on opposite sides of the war, neither are left unscathed by its horrors. Even though Vo Dai actually has an emotional stake in this (Vietnam is his home after all) he doesn't feel like what he's doing is making his country a better place.As I said above, this book feels like a horror story at times, insofar as war itself is genuine horror. The war is never once depicted as anything other than brutal and bloody, with men from both sides being eviscerated by gunfire and explosives. But the real horror of reading this book undoubtedly comes from the realization that while this may be a work of fiction, much of what occurs in the story actually happened. Young men with families and homes to think about were slaughtered for little other than the politics of the men in power. America gained nothing from the Vietnam War, and the country itself did not become the worker's paradise that Communism promised it would; you can't help but shed a tear thinking about how many people (on both sides) died for a war that should never have happened.As for the art of the story, I think you'll appreciate Cameron Stewart's depictions of the carnage of war. His style walks a fine line between cartoonish and realistic, as while you can clearly tell you're reading a comic book, his art is subtle in regards to details such as facial expressions and body language. His art depicts not only the physical, but also the emotional evolution of both Everette and Vo Dai as they adapt to the brutality of conflict.When all is said and done, apart from the brutality of war, the other message this story carries is the effect that war can (and often does) have on the men who fight it. They may return home without a scratch, but their worlds are forever changed by the events they witness, and nothing is ever quite the same for them. Soldiers are not machines, they're thinking and feeling human beings, and sometimes they're left to pick up the pieces of their lives once they go home because something in them is lost. I say this as someone with several family members and close friends who served; to hear them describe it, it's hard to forget some things.The Other Side is an amazing story, and one that I feel deserves more recognition in the wider comic book audience (more than a few people I've talked to have never heard of it). Between the amazing writing and characters, the detailed and expressive art, and the overall theme that war has no real victors, it's a story that gets you using your heart and your brain simultaneously. It may be fiction, but it reads like reality, precisely because in one form or another, it was.

La guerre du vietnam telle qu'elle n'a jamais été vue, par les yeux de deux soldats, chacun dans un camp. L'un est américain et subit sa conscription, l'autre est vietkong et croit en un idéalisme flou. Les deux vont être confrontés à l'absurdité de la guerre, des hommes qui la commandent et à leurs propres démons.Le livre narre en parallèle les deux histoires, en jouant sur les similitudes et les horreurs perpétrées par les deux camps. Le scénario est puissant et émouvant, le dessin est saisissant de simplicité et de justesse. Un superbe one shot, hors de toute série, qui se tient tout seul et laisse forcément pas indifférent. Une superbe édition comme sait les faire Vertigo (Branche de DC Comics)A réserver aux adultes

Much like any long-running television show, a seasoned comic writer turns in their fair share of clunkers, especially as the time goes on and they start to become more and more of a curmudgeon and use the comics medium to drive their messages into their works, resulting in their infamy becoming worsened. From what I’ve heard, this description unfortunately fits Jason Aaron, and more specifically, his Punisher run, something I am admittedly still intrigued to finally read once the second volume hits digital.And then you have books like The Other Side, which take an honest look at something so vile like war. I myself am not the biggest fan of war stories in, frankly, ANY medium!However, this has complexly changed thanks to The Other Side, and this is proof that Jason Aaron has still got it!